Drilling Down the Slides
Now I’ll go through slide by slide and explain each one. You might notice some similarities to the Investor Pitch Deck and you would be right! This is good news because if you already have one perfected, the other one is just a matter of adjusting the story and gearing it to the right audience
1. Title Slide – One Line about what it is you do — go for the big vision statement — not What you do — WHY you do! Hit them in the gut with this
2. The Problem They’re Facing – Here’s the place to describe the gap /problem /challenge or missed opportunity that they are facing. This is best told as a story — you don’t want to come right out and tell them that they have a problem, use a bit more finesse — tell them about something that happened to a company like them because of the problem. People are motivated either by the carrot — something good that could happen to them, or the stick — preventing something bad from happening. Which is more motivating for your audience?
3. Trends – This is where you amp up your problem statement. You bring stats, trends, quotes, etc. that prove that this is a true problem and that existing solutions simply aren’t cutting it.
4. Solution — How are you solving this? Create a simple solution sentence: We’re doing X(solving a problem) for Y(for a specific audience) by Z(in a nutshell, what are you? A Platform /app /solution/tool/ etc.) and as a bonus, your secret sauce that is enabling you to do it This should be so simple that anyone could understand it — even if they don’t have a degree in computer science or engineering.
5. Demo — Create an up to five minute demo showing off your solution — it could be a short film, screenshots, a screenflow (use Camtasia) or even a mock up. Guide them through a first time user experience and highlight 4–5 of the standout features. Make them go wow — but don’t overwhelm them with details. Bonus points if you can do a personalized demo to make them see how it could work for them.
6. Products/Offerings — If you have several different types of solutions or products under your main brand, this is the place to talk about them.
7. Benefits — Highlight the important benefits to your users (if this has already come across in the demo, don’t repeat) keep it at 6–8, no more. You might have 2 types of users. ie The business and their customers (users and end users), publishers and brands — you can list benefits for each. This is where you really want to show the value they will get by using you — i.e. cost reduction, increased productivity, few resources — but also unique benefits.
8. Current Status— What are the major milestones you’ve hit that show that you are a contender — which products have been released? Who are your big clients? Partnerships? Make them see that they are missing out by not being on board yet.
9. Use Cases— This is a good place to showcase how some of your clients are using your product/solution. What was the situation before they found you? What solutions were they using (if any)? And now that they are using you, what are the results?
10. Testimonials — Piggybacking on this, now that they have these amazing results, what are they saying about you? Try to get permission from your biggest champions to quote them about how much they love you and why! (This can potentially be combined with the Use Cases)
11. Unique Selling Points — What truly sets you apart from your competition? What’s your secret sauce? What do you have that nobody else out there does? You don’t need to do a competitive analysis, just state why you are the best solution on the market today.
12. Team — This is the place to make them feel that they are in good, capable hands. The executive team should show know how and experience and also highlight the roles that are more customer success oriented.
13. Future Directions — Any exciting additional features or products in the pipeline that you intend to work on later? Maybe this is just the first step in a much bigger vision! Give them something to look forward to!
14. Moving Forward —Now that they’re interested, what do the next few weeks/months look like? What’s the roll out time? Which resources or headcount need to be involved?
15. Pricing Model — This is an optional slide — you can keep it in back up, show it or just put it in a proposal.
